Young Europeans stand up to their career related fears: “FACE Dublin: What about my future?”

Fear is one of the main reasons why lots of great business ideas have not been developed in Europe yet. Moreover, future career uncertainty has been identified at FACE Entrepreneurship’s Delphi study as one of the most common fears young entrepreneurs must confront when they decide to start up a business.

To help young entrepreneurs deal and overcome this fear, the FACE entrepreneurship project held a panel and networking session: ‘FACE Dublin. What about my future?’, Thursday, February 4th, at the Guinness Enterprise Centre in Dublin (GEC), which was recently ranked the top university-linked business incubator in the world. The event took place within the framework of the Startup Europe Week, and it counted with the collaboration of the South Summit and Startup Ireland.  Four well-known entrepreneurs shared the doubts they faced when they decided to leave their stable jobs and embark on the entrepreneurial path: Jesse Van Doren, Ken Banks, Cristina Luminea and Eoin Costello.

Will I ever get another corporate job if I try and fail?

Eamonn Sayers, Director of the Guinness Enterprise Center (GEC), moderated the panel, addressing the European entrepreneurship ecosystem and the barriers fears pose. Very specific fears that FACE Entrepreneurship identified in a DELPHI study were tackled, like financial fear or career related fears.

Precisely this last fear is the one we were addressing at the event in Dublin, because many potential entrepreneurs are afraid of losing their professional value if they startup and fail. “Will I ever get another corporate job if I try and fail?” was one permanent question in the room. And our experts were all on the same page when it was said that yes, being an entrepreneur is worth it by itself but also it will improve your résumé, even if you fail. Experience, leadership, courage, imagination… there are many skills that you could put on your CV, or you could just say that you were an entrepreneur.

If you want to learn, start doing something.

A common consensus at the panel was that you need to start doing things and facing your fears if you want to learn; failure turns out to be a huge barrier for entrepreneur and Europeans need to work hard to change that perception of “Taking risks is a cultural thing”, said Banks, “jobs for life are gone, we are in the perfect place now where people don’t need to worry about missing the financial services gravy job train because it is already gone. And, if they don’t go out when they are young and take the risks, then they never will. Get out there before you have kids that you can show off in instagram and before you get that mortgage.”

Jesse Van Doren, founder of Mappedinholland.com and the youngest entrepreneur at the panel, supported similar ideas. “Start small but start” was his main advice. And he was the perfect example, starting up at the age of 11. With a smile on his face, Van Doren described how he had to wait until he was 13 in order to get more serious with his entrepreneurship adventure because the law was very strict about child labour. That personal anecdote was one of many that speakers shared throughout the event, as perfect examples and lessons of entrepreneurship.

Lessons like these were also offered by Cristina Luminea, CEO of ThoughtBox, who made emphasis on the importance of listening to the feedback from potential customers and she encouraged those young entrepreneurs that want to startup to do it with someone else. “Get a co-founder. Find the people that are passionate about the same things that you are”. And then, join them on the path of entrepreneurship that is hard enough to go alone.

Because after a while, you may lose your perspective, miss the big picture. “Why am I doing this?” The question was posed by Ken Banks, founder of various projects such as kiwanja.net or FrontlineSMS, “Never forget how you felt the first time you knew the thing you wanted to do”.

During the event it became clear that being an entrepreneur is something vocational, that has to come from the heart but also, that has to be rational and well planned. This is something that was referred to by Eoin Costello, CEO and founder of many startups like Omniserve or Costello Jewellers, who highlighted the sacrifices and hard work that being an entrepreneur implies, especially in the first years. “Start with the end in mind” was just some of the sage advice he offered the audience.